Dermal exposure from transfer of lubricants and fuels by consumers

Abstract

Consumer uses of fuels and lubricants in Europe are subject to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of CHemicals (REACH) legislation. Ten volunteers completed a series of exposure situations to simulate filling a vehicle fuel tank with diesel (ES1 Diesel), adding lubricant to a car engine (two situations, one filling point easier to reach (ES2 Easy) than the other (ES3 Hard)) and lubricating a bicycle chain (ES4 Bike). Dermal exposure to the hands and forearms was assessed using a wipe sampling method. A high proportion of samples was less than the limit of detection (ES1=38%, ES3=60%, ES2 and 4, both 78%). In ES1 Diesel, dermal exposure to the hands and forearms ranged from <0.25 μg/cm² to 96.21 μg/cm². Significantly higher dermal exposure was observed when a lower level of care was taken to complete the task. In ES2 Easy and ES3 Hard, the hand and forearm results ranged from <0.1 μg/cm² to 3.33 μg/cm² and from <0.1 μg/cm² to 3.54 μg/cm², respectively. In ES4 Bike, the hand and forearm exposures ranged from <0.35 μg/cm² to 5.25 μg/cm². Not all volunteers fully complied with the ES4 instructions, thus highlighting that this situation may have more variability in consumer behaviour. The ratio of the amount measured on the hands and forearms to the amount of product handled for ES1 Diesel, ES2 Easy and ES3 Hard was less than 0.0001%, for ES4 Bike it was 0.04%. Mixed effect models showed that the between and within volunteer variations are small for all except ES1 Diesel, where the within volunteer variation was relatively large (likely due to the few high measurements). This study reports dermal exposure measurement data, which will be of value when updating REACH and other exposure assessments for these, and similar, petroleum products.